The Secret To Life
December 11th, 2014 by Diane Conklin under Business - General, Business Strategy, Information Marketing, Uncategorized. No Comments.
I was out with a friend the other day and she had something sent to Walmart instead of to her home, so we stopped by to pick it up while we were out doing other things.
We had to go to the product pick-up area in the back of the store and when we got there, there was one employee and he was helping somebody, then there was one other person before us. While I knew there was going to be a wait, I had no idea I was about to learn the secret to life…according to the janitor at Walmart…
As you may or may not know, patience isn’t my best thing…
Well, I think I’m more patient now than at any point in my life, but it’s still not what others might measure as their patience level.
In this instance, I wasn’t the only one airing my displeasure, so at least I felt like I wasn’t all that bad.
Some 20 minutes after we arrived and nobody new had been helped I was growing thin on waiting, so when another employee came to the back and asked if we had been helped (there must have been 15 others who walked right by and didn’t look us in the eye or say a word) I said no.
When he buzzed somebody he was told the employee was helping somebody else. He relayed the information and that began a short conversation…
Short conversation partly because I was informed that “I had to be patient.” Then, as the man was walking away sweeping the floor with his industrial sized push broom, he said, “yep, that’s the secret to life…the secret to success in life is patience.”
Now, while I was a bit irritated by this, it also made me pause a bit and think. And, it made me laugh so the fact that I had to wait longer seemed less stressful.
The point of all this is really that while I’m not sure patience is the secret to life’s success, it struck me that it certainly can’t hurt to have some patience, more patience than most of us have.
What would happen in our businesses and our lives if we were more patient with our clients, with ourselves, with vendors, with our kids, without spouses/partners, with our parents, etc.?
I’m not talking about silly things and we all know what it’s like to be under a time crunch or behind with things – but what if you practiced having just a little more patience every day?
I know I’m going to – it will be an area of emphasis in the New Year for me. Now that I’ve shared this with you, I’m sure we’ll be there to keep each other accountable for this. Who knows, maybe we’ll all find out the Walmart janitor was right…
Prosperity & Abundance to You
PS – I’d love for you to leave a comment or share the post! Thanks!
